Only if we have not been cursing the Coronavirus pandemic enough already, there’s more bad news coming our ways. Though it has affected the world in a million adverse ways, the currently ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has been nothing less than a doomsday for all the automobile enthusiasts out there.
From the cancellation of an incredible number of events to delay in production lines, the COVID-19 has severely hit the automobile industry. The latest unwelcome news has come from the house of Ford.
Lincoln, which happens to be the extravagance branch of Ford has confirmed that it will no longer go forward with its plan of developing an electric vehicle based on Rivian’s skateboard platform.
Rivian is an American automotive company that was founded in 2009 and has been in the news lately for manufacturing competitive electric vehicles. Recently, the brand came up with an electric truck that is in development in order to lock its horns with Tesla’s Cybertruck.
Ford had earlier declared an electric SUV which it was to develop in association with Rivian. The SUV was to come under the banner of Lincoln by 2022 and had been named Lincoln Mark E.
Unfortunately, the plans seem to have been shattered eyeing the current circumstances. The brand said that both the partners of this collaboration – Lincoln and Rivian have decided not to pursue this development and blamed the “current environment” for this decision.
However, this news was accompanied by a statement that said that Lincoln still plans on continuing this association and that both the companies may soon begin to work with Rivian on a different vehicle. Gladly, this vehicle will also underpin the Rivian’s skateboard platform.
A Rivian spokesperson came out with the word that both the companies look forward to continuing to work with each other and may soon initiate a new project in form of a new jointly developed vehicle.
Though there is no word out upon what kind of vehicle this will be, we hope to soon see some progress in this direction.
Apart from this, Ford’s luxury division, Lincoln confirmed that the company has its own electric vehicle in development. Though the details about this EV is totally nonexistent and we do not have the slightest idea about what kind of vehicle it will be. However, what we do know till yet, is that this EV will underpin a Ford platform and will exude Lincoln’s typical opulent character and will be laden with the company’s DNA.